H-0239_Audio |
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Object Description
Interview no. | H-0239 |
Restrictions | No restrictions. Open to research. |
Project | H.7. Piedmont Industrialization, 1974-1980: Greenville, S.C. |
Project description | Interviews, 1976-1980, about industrialization in Greenville, N.C., chiefly documenting the growth of the textile industry there. Topics include the development of the prosperous town, the neighborhoods in which black servants lived, and the mill villages; work experiences and daily lives of mill workers, most of whom migrated from farming communities; moving from farming to industrial work; work conditions; safety; stretchouts; wages; paternalism; the division of labor by gender; home work; the impact of the Depression and World War II; violence in the mills; unionization; and health concerns. Interviews were chiefly conducted as part of the "Perspectives on Industrialization: The Piedmont Crescent of Industry, 1900-1940" project. |
Date | 8 November 1979 |
Interviewee | Cline, Paul Edward, 1921-1986. |
Interviewee occupation |
Textile workers Factory workers |
Interviewee DOB | 1921 |
Interviewee ethnicity | Whites |
Interviewer | Tullos, Allen, 1950- |
Abstract | Paul Cline came from a mill family: his father was a box loom weaver, his sisters were weavers, and Cline himself mastered a number of jobs at a textile mill before his declining health drove him from his job. After years of working with asbestos, from 1938 until the 1960s, Cline had developed brown lung disease. In this interview, he recalls his mill work and his struggle to wrest worker's compensation from his employer, J. P. Stevens. Cline's memories of his family's mill work and his own experiences have given him strongly negative opinions of textile mills. He describes tyrannical mill owners who forced their employees to work long hours in dreadful conditions; sadistic mill foremen who dangled children from windows; and capricious owners who might fire their employees at will. He also presents a vivid picture of mill life, describing his family's garden, their home, and his father's fondness for fighting. This interview provides a perspective on the struggles of one southern laborer not just to make a living but to stay alive. |
Subject Topical |
Textile workers--South Carolina. Textile workers--South Carolina. Byssinosis--South Carolina. Textile workers--South Carolina. Textile workers--South Carolina. Industrial relations--South Carolina. |
Subject Name | Cline, Paul Edward, 1921-1986. |
Citation | Interview with [interviewee name] by [interviewer name], [interview date] [interview number], in the Southern Oral History Program Collection #4007, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
Description
Interview no. | H-0239_Audio |